How To Outsmart Your Boss In Coffee Bean Shop
Five Brooklyn Coffee Bean Shops
If you're a coffee lover and you're looking for a place to shop, then you'll need to visit a coffee bean shop. They offer a wide variety of beans that are whole from all over the world. These stores also offer unique trinkets, kitchenware and other things.
Some of these shops offer subscriptions to their coffee beans. Others offer the beans in bulk at their retail locations.
Porto Rico Importing Co.
Veteran coffee seller specializing in international brews and a selection of loose teas
When you enter this old-school West Village shop, the smell of fresh roasting beans fills the air. Open bags of dark-brown beans line the shelves, along with jars of sugar, coffee-making equipment as well as tea accessories.
Porto Rico, originally opened in 1907 by Italian immigrants Patsy Albonese. At the time, Greenwich Village was seeing an influx of Italian immigrants who established businesses to serve their culinary needs. Albanese named her shop after the well-known Puerto Rican coffee she imported (and sold) which was that was so popular at the time that even the Pope drank it.
Today, Porto Rico sells 130 varieties of beans from all over the globe at three locations in New York City including their Bleecker Street location, Essex Market and online. Porto Rico roasts their own beans and provides wholesale distribution to 350 restaurants in NYC, Brooklyn and Brooklyn.
Peter Longo, current owner and president, was raised in the family bakery located on Bleecker Street, where his father ran Porto Rico. The owner continues to run the shop in the same way as his father and grandfather.
Sey Coffee
Sey Coffee, a coffee shop and roaster is located along Grattan Street, in Morgantown. The neighborhood, which is part of Brooklyn's Bushwick district is situated on Grattan Street. Tobin Polk, Lance Schnorenberg and their co-founders of 33 years, began roasting coffee in a loft on the fourth floor just around the corner, in the year 2011. bulk buy coffee beans was Lofted Coffee. Local clients included Greenpoint's Budin and Soho cart services Peddler and Peddler.
Sey's emphasis on buying micro-lots--or even whole harvests from single farmers been praised by knowledgeable New York City coffee aficionados. Last year they made a six-bag micro-lot purchase of Danilo Dones Sitio Catucai 785 from Brazil's Espirito Santo region. The beans were handpicked at the peak of ripeness, then floated to remove defects and dried fermented for 36 hours before being dried on the farm. The result is a blend with hints of berry lemongrass and melon.
Sey's focus on holistically improving the health of staff, growers and customers extends beyond the retail store. It utilizes composts and biodegradable plastics to keep waste from landfills. This helps to reduce greenhouse gases and helps nourish the soil. It also does away with gratuity, a move that puts the baristas in a position to help sustain their livelihoods and encourage them to focus on their craft.
La Cabra
La Cabra is a modern specialty coffee company that was founded in Aarhus, Denmark in 2012. They began with a small shop and a team of dedicated employees. Their innovative and honest approach to providing an exceptional coffee experience has earned them a loyal fan base not just in their home town but also around the world.
La Carba has a rigorous process to find their perfect beans, scouring through hundreds of different varieties each year to identify the ones that meet their standards. They roast them in a light manner then dial the roast to create their desired flavor profile. This results in an enhanced taste and clarity.
The East Village store, which opened in October last year and has been praised by critics for its excellent pour overs and baked goods, which are overseen by Jared Sexton. He previously worked at Bien Cuit, Dominique Ansel as well as other coffee houses.
The shop employs a La Marzocco modbar, and the plates and cups are designed by Wurtz ceramics in Horsens, the son and father studio. In a recent interview with Atlanta Coffee Shops General Manager Ian Walla revealed that La Cabra serves 250 different coffees a yea and typically has seven or eight different varieties available at any given time.
The Roasting Plant Coffee
The Roasting Plant is the only multi-unit retailer of coffee which roasts on-site and brews to order, with each cup of coffee roasting and brewed to your specifications in less than an hour. It searches far and far for the finest quality specialty beans, which are directly sourced that offer customers a variety and high-quality.
Their on-site roaster utilizes fluid bed technology which is a bit different to the drum-type machines commonly found in many UK coffee shops. The beans are blown into a heated container with high-speed air that is circulated. This keeps the beans suspended and allows for a constant roasting speed.
I tried the Sumatran Coffee and it was incredibly rich and velvety with a velvety taste. Dark chocolate was evident from the aroma, and as you sip the coffee you could taste subtle citrus fruit aromas.
The coffee that has been roasted is transported to the Eversys super-automatic brewing machines and you can have your coffee brewed to your specifications in less than a minute. Customers can select from nine single origins as well as different blends.
Parlor Coffee
Parlor Coffee was founded in 2012 behind a barbershop, with a single espresso machine. It has since morphed into a flourishing coffee roastery, and its beans can be found in a variety of great cafes, restaurants, and home brewers throughout the city. Parlor Coffee is dedicated to sourcing only the highest-quality beans, that have been through a lengthy journey before arriving at its roasters.
The owners, who are self-described as "passionate about coffee and believe that great coffee should accessible to everyone," have created a space that is down-to earth and filled with chalkboards. There are compost bins, up-cycled handmade products, and minimal decor.
They roast their own blends (there were six at the time I was there) and single-origins. But they also host cuppings on Sundays that are accessible to the public. Think of it like the tasting room of a brewery. You can smell and taste the ground beans, from chocolatey to earthy (one was almost tomato-like!). They're a bit off the beaten path and it's worth the trip.